I am a bodhi tree, and my heart is like a mirror platform.
Wipe frequently, and don't create dust.
Six ancestors Huineng's poem is:
Bodhi trees have no trees, and the mirror platform is not a platform.
There is nothing, so there is no dust.
What's the difference between two poems?
Shen Xiu's "regular rubbing" embodies the process and gradual enlightenment, which refers to the process in which monks constantly remove the karma that prevents them from becoming Buddhists and break the fetters during their practice. This process is inevitable and everyone needs to go through it. It is this kind of thinking that limits our understanding of Shen Xiu. He believes that only through penance can we fully understand-this is the practice of Buddhist practice, but it is not the essence of Zen.
Huineng's "no beginning and no end" embodies an epiphany, and it is about the result, which requires high understanding and early cultivation. At the last moment, the transformation is complete, and a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Six ancestors tell everyone the final result. What is displayed in front of everyone is a butterfly, so that everyone can see it clearly at once. This is an epiphany.
In Zen Buddhism, "epiphany" is the highest level of understanding, and enlightened practitioners are far more advanced than ignorant and austere practitioners. Although epiphany is actually accumulated on the road of gradual enlightenment, in order to achieve an instant "clear platform and complete enlightenment" and attract more believers, Buddhism and Zen mostly publicize the epiphany of "becoming a Buddha on the spot" and avoid talking about the gradual enlightenment of penance.
Over time, the epiphany without foundation prevailed. The self-centered idealism of "nothing" is much better than the beautiful "always indelible" because of the lazy mind of practitioners who want to become magical powers without learning Buddhism.